Inauguration Day

President Bush Goes Away
Gotta say. His farewell address the other day was the first speech of his that I've actually enjoyed. Particularly that last bit, when he said goodbye, then turned around and walked away. That part was terrific.

Historical Tides
There is a peculiar recurring theme in American history: weak, ineffectual presidents get overwhelmed by one or more crises are replaced by a strong president who seems to appear in history at exactly the right moment. I'm thinking particularly of Buchanan being replaced by Lincoln (who really came out of nowhere), and Hoover being replaced by Franklin Roosevelt. I think a lot of people are feeling the possibility that this might prove to be such a moment. The current crisis certainly has the potential to be as dire as the Great Depression, and once the election was over, with its astonishing historical implications just in terms of the nation's long racial struggle, the sense that Barack Obama might turn out to be the unlikely hero delivered by history just in the nick of time, this sense has only grown. An approval rating in the high 70s before he's even inaugurated? Unheard of.


The Size of the Crowds
I've got CNN on, and they occasionally show crowd shots. I've only got one reaction:

Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus...

But Beware Obamatry
The adoration people are feeling right now for Mr. Obama is of course dangerous in itself. It's born of economic uncertainty: everyone is feeling more than a little tenuous right now, and that's feeding this growing idolatry. (Hell, I'm feeling it too. Our funding for our next movie just dried up, barely a week before we were supposed to receive it, solely because the lenders decided to stop lending to anyone. So now we scramble, and hope fervently that money will start to loosen up a little once Mr. Obama is actually president. Which, as I write, is just over an hour from now.)

But it's inevitable that Obama will disappoint. No one has a flawless presidency, not Washington, not Lincoln, not FDR, no one. It cannot happen. And the higher Mr. Obama is lifted toward Mt. Olympus, the greater the sense of disappointment will be; the greater the attendant fall to earth.

Still...
As I watched the concert on Sunday, as Mr. Obama stood behind the speech delivering his speech to the crowds spread out across the Mall, I was suddenly struck by a notion:

Someday there's probably going to be a statue or a structure to him, right out there in the Mall. Aware though I am of the dangers of Obamatry, I'm getting a little swept up too. And he does have the potential. He absolutely has the potential to be one of the greats. Whether he'll be able to actually pull it off, well, that remains to be seen.

But now I'm going to just sit back, and watch, and enjoy this moment like crazy.